Jesse Wentworth Crosby diaries

L. Tom Perry Special Collections is pleased to announce the availability of a new digitized collection: Jesse Wentworth Crosby diaries (MSS 2180). The collections consists of seven volumes, four of which are originals and have been digitized, and three which are only available on microfilm. The digitized diaries span from 1884-1909 and include accounts of Crosby’s activities in Cowley, Wyoming, and in nearby communities, providing rare documentation on life in one of the last Mormon colonies. Entries focus on canal construction, Crosby’s store, and other business enterprises, plus agricultural, church, and political activities. Pre-1902 entries are mostly notes taken at LDS general conferences and other meetings, with a few diary entries interspersed.  The diaries on microfilm span from 1909-1914, and include similar information.

Jesse Wentworth Crosby was born on June 22, 1848 in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Jesse Wentworth Crosby and Hannah Elida Baldwin. He married Sarah Pauline Clark on October 4, 1867, in Salt Lake City, Utah, and they had twelve children together. He also later married Sarah Francis Jacobs aprroximately in 1878, Annie Maria Davies in 1878, and Sarah Ann Meeks in 1894. Crosby was President of the Panguitch Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1882 to 1900. He was an early settler in Big Horn, Wyoming, and was a member of the Wyoming legislature representing Big Horn County beginning in 1910. Crosby died on February 24, 1915, in Cowley, Wyoming.